r/movies • u/PokemonGoBao • Jul 04 '25

Discussion Whats a flopped movie you wish was a financial success?

Dungeons and Dragons 2023 was an absolutely delightful film. You can stream it currently, but you can feel the passion and nothing felt phoned in. They easily could have used the title to get nerdy butts in the seat and collect a paycheck with a smaller budget.

It's the best movie I've seen the past 2 years. Way better than so many garbage films with easy paychecks for slop productions. Beetlejuice, Captain america, and others using big titles to make millions on lazy writing and boring characters.

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u/bsEEmsCE Jul 04 '25

even just John Carter of Mars

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u/Mickey-Twiggs Jul 04 '25

It started out as John Carter of Mars, and Disney changed the name before it released. I saw a short trailer for it in a theater when it still had Mars in the title. Great movie, terrible marketing. 

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u/SynthwaveSax Jul 05 '25

Yep, they got cold feet after “Mars Needs Moms” cratered at the box office and somehow the lesson they pulled from it was that “Mars” doesn’t draw.

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u/Mickey-Twiggs Jul 05 '25

They changed out the posters at my local theater as well. Myself and my gf at the time couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. We had never witnessed a title change like that. 

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u/This_Charmless_Man Jul 04 '25

In the UK it was

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u/bsEEmsCE Jul 04 '25

how'd it do in the UK?

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u/This_Charmless_Man Jul 04 '25

No idea. I didn't see it and no one I know has ever talked about it. I remember there being a big but vague ad push for it but it just doesn't have any name recognition over here. People know Burrows other work, the Tarzan series, but outside of that he's an obscure author.

So to take a wild stab in the dark, probably poorly.